The Finance Dublin Debt Clock of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland's current official national debt, in euros, and as a percentage of national income (a measure of how much it is leveraged):

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Ireland's Gross National Debt (NTMA definition - see 'Composition of 'National Debt' table) as a percentage of 2025 GDP (€562.2bn)* (on the left, below), and as a percentage of 2025 GNP (€440.0bn)* (on the right):

The national debt and tax competitiveness

The management of Ireland's national debt is closely related to the tax competitiveness of the Irish economy.

In the latest Roundtable Panel in the Irish Tax Monitor leading Irish tax advisers examine key developments on a monthly basis.

The FINANCE DUBLIN Irish Government Debt Clock has recorded the swings in Ireland’s state indebtedness from the crash of the Irish economy in the years 2007-9 in the wake of the global financial crisis (GFC) to the present time. Ireland’s GNP fell by 17% between 2007 and 2011, while the national debt more than trebled.

The debt clock was set at midnight on June 30th 2009, when it was €65.3 billion, but by the end of that year Gross National Debt* had risen to €97 billion (57.2% of the then (2009) GDP of €169.5 billion).

It was to continue to climb as a % of the national income with the Net National Debt* reaching a peak of 113.5% of GNP in 2013.

However, policies put in place and corrective Budgetary action from that time on, in conjunction with the continuation of the open economy model policy followed by Ireland since the 1960s, saw a reversion to trend, with debt as a percentage of national income resuming a downward path on a similar trajectory to what was recorded during the “Celtic Tiger” Years of 1996 to 2007, the eve of the GFC.

That downward trajectory was briefly interrupted by the ‘pump priming’ expenditures of the Irish Government in response to the Covid 19 pandemic, but, in retrospect turned out to be no more than a minor blip on the chart as the debt/national income percentages have continued to decline to the levels shown above.

Nevertheless, Irish debt levels have still not fallen to the record low levels they were at on the eve of the great financial crisis in 2007, when the Irish Net National Debt stood at €38 billion, 22.26% of the then GNP.

Economics literature has long featured a discussion on the topic 'does national debt matter', notably since the emergence of Government bond markets in the 1700s and 1800s, in France, the UK, and the USA. One aspect of that debate has to do with national sovereignty - important for small, and not so small 'price taking', economies, such as Ireland. If 'national' debt is owed to foreign creditors, a sovereign Exchequer is at their behest to pay it back, thus exerting an 'automatic stabiliser' for national Governments interested in preserving their own discretionary economic power.

If on the other hand it is owed internally in a 'price making' economy, e.g. the nation in custody of the international reserve currency at present, the USA, to the sovereign's own citizens, the automatic stabiliser is not so evident and the issue can be clouded by discussions about inter-generational or inter social group transfers of wealth. This can tempt Governments to 'kick the can down the road', and postpone the disciplinary action needed ultimately to restrain their increasing dominance over the economy.

Given that the reserve currency sovereign controls the nation's money supply and can print the national currency at will, this independence can be resorted to. However this will only be achievable without causing inflation in the short term, or exchange rate stress, for as long as production keeps up, (the supply side) with the rate of creation of new money. But, one way or another, unlimited growth in the national debt as a % of GNP will result over time in an increasing share of public expenditure being absorbed by interest payments, resulting in unsustainable upward pressures and eventual collapse in taxation capacity, a spectre that is not attractive for any country, be they a 'price taker' or 'price maker' in global public finance markets.

Ultimately, for countries large and small, national debt potentially becomes an issue around national sovereignty. It is in this respect equivalent to the position of the individual. The best guarantee of national sovereignty is national debt being low as a percentage of national income (however measured).

*Note: The Debt Clock updates published figures by the Irish National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) for the Gross National Debt of the Republic of Ireland. The NTMA also publishes data on a monthly basis for the Net National Debt (NND) - see above link. Taking this NND as a yardstick of the Irish State's indebtedness, the indebtedness percentages in the table are approximately 10 percentage points (1,000 bps) lower as a % of national income.